Gearboxes known in the art typically enclose one or more gear sets. Such gear sets are mounted on two or more shafts which traverse the gearbox between generally parallel, facing walls which are spaced from each other at a defined distance. In industry, such walls are typically made of iron, steel or other durable, substantially rigid material.
The gears are built, it is intended, to very precise tolerances. It is also intended that they be smooth and very hard. FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of engagement of teeth of one gear by teeth of a second gear. The arrows illustrate where force exerted by the drive gear is applied to teeth of the driven gear. Optimally, the point at which force is transmitted from one gear to another be lubricated so that all contact occurs at a location at which a film of oil is applied between the teeth. Gearboxes built this way, in theory, are expected to have a nearly infinite gear life. In practice, however, some gearboxes experience failure after a relatively short period of use. This often occurs due to pitting of the teeth at contact surfaces near one axial end of the gears. On occasion, fracture of teeth will even occur at areas of pitting.
Damage as described hereinbefore suggests that operation of the gears has been such that functioning has been less than perfect because the gears have not been operating with the gear faces parallel and teeth in exact parallel mesh. That is, operation has been such that one axial end of teeth has been in contact more extensively, thus overstressing the material of which the gears are made at that end.
Misalignment, it has been determined, occurs for a number of reasons. First, the walls defining the gearbox within which the axles to which the gears are journaled are not strong enough to prevent distortion when the gears in the gearbox are placed under a force. This results because the opposite walls are, in fact, subjected to different levels of force when the axial centers of the gears are not equidistant from the walls.
Another cause of misalignment results from the axles themselves. Even where the walls are strong enough so as to not distort when subjected to pressure, the axles to which the gears are mounted may distort so that planes defined by the faces of the respective gears become non-parallel.
It is to these shortcomings and deficiencies of the prior art that the present invention is directed. It is both a process and an apparatus which, it is intended, solves these problems.